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Slashings and stabbings in the subway system are off the rails.
The slicings soared 29% last year (182) from 2020 (141), and the bloodshed continues with 27 incidents so far this year, up 35% from the 20 in the same period last year.
In one recent attack, cops are looking for the unhinged man who slashed straphanger Kevin Young behind the ear, face and hand after Young accidentally bumped into him around 5:45 a.m. Feb. 12 at the Union Square station platform on East 14th Street.
“Subway crime is out of control,” fumed Young, 36, to The Post.
The Manhattan man was on his way to work to start his 6 a.m. shift at Trader Joe’s in Union Square — when he tried to step off a southbound Q train as his assailant forcefully boarded.
“He’s trying to get on the train and I’m trying to get out and after a shoving match he goes for his blade,” Young recalled. “I tried to defend myself as much as possible. As soon as I held him down, he got his blade and went to work.”
The razor-wielding suspect sliced the left side of Young’s face “from my sideburns going to my left ear. … He cut my fingers and I lost strength and control,” Young said. “I told him, ‘I just want to go home.’”
The stunned 6-foot, 172-pound victim staggered to a nearby kiosk “and the MTA guy saw me bleeding and in hysteria,” Young said.
He needed 25 stitches to close his wounds at Bellevue Hospital. He underwent surgery at Bellevue on Thursday to deal with nerve damage in his left middle finger. “And I have to get pin plates inserted into my right index finger so the bones could grow back,” he groaned.
His unknown assailant is still on the loose. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, black jeans, black Adidas bag and eyeglasses, police said.
“I just think it’s disgusting how crimes like this can happen to a person,” Young said. “There should be more cops in the subways. There is a stigma against the police. They need to maintain safety and they need to be aggressive. Let them do their jobs,.”
Young’s encounter came four days after a 39-year-old woman was slashed in the forehead with a boxcutter by another woman on a southbound Manhattan 5 train at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue.
Bail reform, which allows repeat offenders to remain on the streets, and authorities mostly ignoring turnstile-jumping and the legion of homeless and emotionally disturbed living in the labyrinthine subway system, is a recipe for disaster, experts said.
“For criminals, the subway is target rich and escape from detection and arrest is easy,” said Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective who is now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The transportation is built in.”
Alcazar said disbanded teams like the homeless outreach unit in the NYPD “provided an invaluable service to identify the people that needed assistance. I question what happened to all the monies that was set aside by the previous administration to provide assistance for the homeless population.”
Another John Jay professor, Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant, said, “When I was a cop, I always feared sharp instruments more than guns. They’re easy to get, easier to conceal, and cause lots of damage. … One simple solution is to enforce turnstile jumping again, but half of the City Council will lose their minds. The NYPD is in a no-win situation.”
On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams outlined his plan to clean up the city’s increasingly dangerous subway system. The initiative features teams of school nurses, outreach workers and cops poised to convince homeless people and the mentally ill to accept help.
Slashing victim Young had this message for Mayor Adams: “Do what’s best for the people to insure there is safety. If there should be a cop in every subway car and on every platform. So be it.”
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